Welcome

I've been playing on and off for a decade after being introduced by a friend.

I played regularly for a few years during the poker boom and had a decent record at the micros, particularly Rush and Zoom No Limit Hold'em games (here's one of my graphs).

Around 2012 I began a new career which involved immersing myself completely in study in my spare time, so I had little to no time for poker. However recently this burden has eased and so I have been gradually dipping back in.

I'm an amateur player who still hopes to some day beat the rake.

Monday, 11 July 2011

Game Plan

Hey, well I'm just about to upload some more funds to make use of the reload bonus. This will enable me to move up to 25NL full ring. My threshold for moving back down to 10NL will be $500 and moving up to 50NL will be $1000.

So I will be using a '20 buy-in for the next limit' bankroll risk structure. Considering that I have 50 buy-ins for the lowest limit (and that I've seen how soft that limit is) my actual risk of ruin is very likely close to 0%. I've verified this using the bankroll tool at evplusplus.com.

While I do think that my risk of ruin is small enough, I'll have to be very careful and look for indicators in the games that I play that might tell me that my strategy isn't profitable. I'm almost certain that it is at the 10NL limit and I wouldn't expect a huge change for 25NL but I'll keep a careful eye on it. I will also need to switch tables if I ever find a situation where I think there is questionable profit.

My experiences in Rush poker and more recently at the Stars' tables is going to make me look for the following attributes in an ideal table:* Tight players or fish to my right-- In Rush poker there was always regs sat in the CO or BTN that would consistently steal my blinds. In these games it seems to happen less often which is good for my profit (I won't go into detail). If I can find tables where players are not stealing very often it will help with my win rate from the blinds themselves.* Weak players to my left-- If we have good players to our left then they'll be playing pots in position and 3-betting with a decent strategy. While I think I can largely hold my own against micro regs these days, I'd rather be in pots with fish and messing with regs will not allow this to happen.

So why the change in approach? Well I heard on a forum that the UK government is looking into existing licensing rules for online gambling companies. It's possible that this will be a positive change that gives us extra security and ensures that we are not at as much risk as we are currently (as evidenced by the Full Tilt saga). On the other end of the spectrum they could bring in a taxed and regulated system like France where the high rake makes the games unbeatable. My hope is that they will not move to tax gambling again (since it nearly killed the industry before - and gambling is a big industry in the UK) but merely regulate the market more thoroughly. However, given how the world's governing bodies are currently waging war with online poker I cannot rule out a negative result. In other words I need to try and make as much as I can from the game while I can.

I know that my recent results have not been great, but I'm sure that I can beat the Stars' games at 10NL and providing there is not a significant increase in skill over the next couple of limits hopefully I can make a few hundred bucks.

I guess now would be a good opportunity to use my: ONE TIMEEEEEE!!!!UK government, please don't kill online poker.